The European Space Agency’s Schiaparelli Mars lander was feared lost late on Wednesday after communications with the probe abruptly stopped during its touchdown process, The Guardian reported. Officials at the European Space Operations Centre said signals from the robot probe stopped just before its expected landing on the Martian surface.
A Giant Meter Wave Radio Telescope in Khodad, near Pune, was the last to receive signals from the Mars lander, NDTV reported. National Centre for Radio Astrophysics Director Swarna Ghosh said the signal was detected by the centre, assigned by the European Space Agency to monitor the mission, two minutes before its touchdown.
The lander did not communicate with the Operations Centre despite a seemingly smooth approach to the planet. Data from the craft’s descent was later broadcasted to the mission control room by the Mars Express orbiter. “This telemetry will tell us what action was interrupted when we lost the communications,” said Paolo Ferri, the head of mission operations. Ferri further said that the mission operators would decide on their next course of action after studying the data, according to BBC.
However, the probe’s mothership – the Trace Gas Orbiter – successfully managed to place itself in an elliptical orbit around Mars. The landing, if successful, will mark Europe’s first time on the Red Planet. The mission is part of the overall ExoMars project, a joint programme with Russian space agency Roscosmos State Corporation, to investigate the possibility of alien life on the planet.
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